User blog:Kombatgod/Automatic redlink removal
Hurray! I've finally managed to do what I've wanted to do for a long time: removing redlinks from the table in each series page. This is a victory to me because it took me a long time to find the correct way to do so, and it's also an arguably big change in the feel of each page. Basically, the "L" template, used to create new rows in the tables, instead of linking everything automatically, it only links pages that it knows exist. Now, with this said, I believe it's not an objectively right choice. I do prefer the site this way, but I have some doubts. I think it's messy to have so many redlinks, but I can think of two specific benefits from them: 1-adding a page is easier by just clicking on the redlink; 2-not having redlinks makes it impossible to see the actual ' '. (Actually scratch that. As I was writing this I realized the #ifexist functon I used in the template does count as a link to the page it's checking, so that still is added to the wanted pages as if a redlink was there.) Now for point 1, I think the best way to add a page either way is to use the tabs in this page I created a long time ago and I still use (it's even linked in the main page, actually), so to me it's not really a problem. On the other hand benefits from not having the redlinks are pretty obvious: pages look less messy, you don't have random visitors clicking on them by accident or users use them to effortlessly make a blank page, and it follows the general Wikia rules of trying to avoid redlinks. Not to mention, realistically we gotta admit that we'll never be able to make all those pages. Some are bound to be left unlinked forever (even though the idea is to link them all, theoretically) If people prefer the way it was before let me know. I can revert this very easily, but let's give it a try. :EDIT: the function doesn't work correctly on pages with many links, since there's a limit to how many times you can use the #ifexist function, set by default to 99 (meaning it will link correctly the first 49 rows in the table, then only check the series' name for row 50, and then leave all subsequent rows unlinked). These pages are automatically added to the category Pages with too many expensive parser function calls. I'll try to fix this in some way. ::Here are some possible solutions: ::1-Reverting everything back. We'll just keep the redlinks. ::2-Increase the limit from 99 to like 1000. This would be the best option, but I have no clue how to change the value. ::3-Only call the #ifexist function once per row. This is a partial solution since we would still be limited to 99 rows, and also we would either have to leave redlinks on the descriptions or being forced to have the series page if we also want the respective "X" page, or something like that. We might even remove the links to "X" pages altogether. ::4-Splitting the long tables into different pages. There would be some problem to what criteria to use, but this is the solution I'm currently voting for. ::5-Using a different template for long tables. Instead of the "L" template I can make like a "LL" template used exclusively for these pages, and it would work like the old version of the template. This would mean that only the longest tables would be filled with redlinks, which kinda defeat the purpose. I can hear ideas on alternatives though. Let me know what you think. We might also combine some solutions. btw, right now I'm also redesigning the links to the "X" pages. Some users said it's wrong and inconvenient to have the description itself as a link, and I agree, so I'm changing that. If you have ideas on how to change it let me know. Category:Blog posts